Art Dubai

KAWS

PRESS RELEASE

These new works privilege form over image, referencing the history of animation as well as gestural abstract painting from the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing from the family of Peanuts characters invented by Charles Schulz, KAWS has created layered abstractions and shaped paintings made on canvas stretched over wood panels that mimic the silhouettes of these familiar characters. KAWS's exclusive use of black and white emphasizes line and form, calling more attention to the abstractions the work proposes than to the characters themselves. Though the characters are blown so far out of proportion that they are nearly unrecognizable in the abstract compositions, KAWS leaves just enough information for us to identify his subjects, underscoring the ubiquity of these figures and the power of the repetition of images to enter the popular imagination. This body of work expands upon KAWS's ideas around the power of images to communicate beyond expected realms. Through his stylized adaptations of icons of American animation, he accesses a collective consciousness to mirror our addiction to the culture industry.

In summer 2015, Honor Fraser Gallery will publish MAN'S BEST FRIEND, a new monograph documenting KAWS's 2014 exhibition at the gallery.